hub caps

[cadetchris]

having recently reinstated the original wheels on primrose and had the balanced beautifully by a bloke at tanvic, primrose still felt like driving a cart, until i had a moment of clarity. i whipped off the hub caps and hey presto, normal running.

so has anyone else come across hubcaps affecting wheel balance? or is this another problem unique to primrose?

[mike.perry]

I can't see how hubcaps could possibly affect wheel balance, they are situated in the centre of the wheel and would have to have a couple of wheel nuts welded to the edge to put them out of balance enough to notice.

[cadetchris]

humm, the plot thickens.

[bmcecosse]

Perhaps the hub caps are causing vortex shedding from the wheels at high speed............ Tacoma Narrows Bridge springs to mind..... They certainly won't be affecting the balance.

[cadetchris]

never thought of that before.

well primrose didnt rattle as much with the wider low profile tyres on, but since i reinstated the original wheels, which have been shot blasted, painted and new tyres on the rear with good tyres on the front, all balanced of course, its like driving a cart. the wheel wobble at around 50 is horrific, so the point where its a blur in the rear view mirror and i get a sore back.

so what could of drastically changed? i used to have a wolseley 1500 which is exactly the same floorpan and transmission and it never was this bad. it could be that i am so un-use to the original feeling of primrose that i am picking up on it, but having only ever driven classic cars, i know that this vibration is abit out of the ordinary

[MColes]

I reverted back to the original wheels from slot-mags and found that the car vibrates a lot more now at higher speeds that it used to.

[bmcecosse]

First check is the balance - slacken off the front brakes and spin the wheels by hand and note where they settle to see if they have a heavy spot. Could also be there is some water inside the tyres!!! It rolls round nicely until speed builds up - and then it can form 'waves' which throw the assembly wildly off balance. Try removing one wheel at a time and fitting the spare to see if you can track it down to one faulty wheel/tyre. Sure the wheel(s) aren't bent - and are the tyres properly fitted - squarely on the bead all the way round inner and outer ??

[cadetchris]

ill give the change a wheel around for the spare method. only way i can think of to track down which tire is giving me jip

[hotrodder13]

my orignal wheels with 155 tyres used to wobble but now with slot mags its stoped it

[cadetchris]

well i have given up with it to be honest. the car ran fine with the other wheels, so those are now back on. the other wheels are going to be found on the "for sale" section along with a few other bits i have laying around the place